1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vacuum processing apparatus and a substrate processing method using the vacuum processing apparatus and, more particularly, to a transit-type vacuum processing apparatus that forms a thin film on a substrate during the passage of a plurality of substrates along the traveling direction through a chamber capable of reducing the pressure and a substrate processing method using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, for example, a transport mechanism as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-80472 has been proposed to transport a large substrate of glass or the like in the horizontal state (to be referred to as horizontal transport hereinafter) in a vacuum processing apparatus that performs a deposition process for a liquid crystal panel.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-80472 also discloses an inline sputtering apparatus that performs deposition while horizontally transporting a large substrate of glass or the like. This inline sputtering apparatus features providing, between the target and the substrate transport plane, a plate member configured to prevent oblique incidence of sputtering particles from the target along the substrate transport direction.
In the conventional inline vacuum processing apparatus, the distance (to be also referred to as a substrate interval hereinafter) between substrates (between a preceding substrate and a succeeding substrate) that are continuous and adjacent to each other upon deposition affects the conductance and also affects the gas pressure in the process chamber. For this reason, it is necessary to form a complex transport mechanism capable of uniforming the distance between adjacent substrates and control the transport mechanism at exact transport timings.